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Tensions rising inside Utility

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
01/31/2013 09:31:32 AM EST

LOWELL REGIONAL Water Utility employees were buzzing this week about the Jan. 18 visit to the Utility garage by Gerard Whitman, the father of an employee who is a focus of the police scrap-metal probe, Geoff Whitman.

Gerard Whitman, a contract employee in the Middlesex Sheriff's Office civil-process division, allegedly flashed a MSO badge when he entered the area where the employees who interact with copper and brass work.

He took aside Foreman Charlie Coughlin, who is filling the retiring Archie Trainor's shoes along with Geoff Whitman, according to those familiar with the day's events.

Coughlin later told colleagues that Gerard Whitman encouraged him to make sure garage employees stick together and play dumb if asked by police about any copper or brass theft, according to sources.

The senior Whitman's visit left some employees feeling threatened, especially in light of previous alleged threats to keep quiet, both verbal and physical, from co-worker Steve Torres. Torres was charged last year with three counts of witness intimidation and put on unpaid leave.

At least two people who were made aware of Gerard Whitman's visit, including a Lowell city councilor, notified Lowell police.

Gerard Whitman, whose brother is former police officer Tony "The Shadow" Whitman, did not respond to a voicemail left on his work phone. Geoff Whitman and Coughlin did not respond to requests for comment.

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Kevin Maccioli, a spokesman for Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, declined comment on Whitman's alleged activities at the Utility that day, and referred inquiries to the Lowell PD.

Several years back, when his son was feuding with then-LRWU employee Keith Murphy, Gerard Whitman approached then-Utility employee Billy Potter at a variety store. He told Potter to be on his son's side of the grudge match, leaving Potter feeling uncomfortable, several sources confirmed.

Geoff Whitman was upset at Murphy for alerting Utility Executive Director Dan Lahiff about his keeping of anabolic steroids and syringes at the Utility, which led to a two-week suspension.

DISABLED VIETNAM-ERA veteran Jake Davis worked his last shift at the Utility on Friday, Jan. 18, after 22 years on the job.

Davis, a head operator, said he was thrilled that some of his co-workers thanked him for his hard work, gave him tokens of their appreciation and threw a pizza party.

Davis, 62, said he was troubled that one employee noticeably did not acknowledge him on his last day: Lahiff.

"I did not even get a handshake from him after all my years of hard work," said Davis. "It was classless, ignorant and rude, and many other people felt that way. I deserved better than that."

Davis said he was especially disappointed because a few weeks earlier Lahiff threw a lavish retirement party for Trainor, the retiring distribution superintendent.

As The Column reported, Lahiff gave a speech, presented Trainor with a fishing rod and made sure utility contractor Woodard and Curran brought plenty of good food from Lenzi's.

Lahiff did not respond to a request for comment.

Davis says Lahiff has been cold to him in recent months. Davis has been outspoken about how he believes those who allegedly took scrap metal to pad their own pockets should face stiff consequences, and that Lahiff has known what those employees were doing.

"He has tried to hide in rooms when two or three of us would be talking about the copper and brass, and he does not like my opinion on it," said Davis. "He couldn't put his feelings aside on my last day."

LONGTIME ASSISTANT City Solicitor Maria Sheehy's last day working for the city was Jan. 18, and The Column has learned she's landed on her feet at, where else, UMass Lowell. Sheehy would not confirm her next destination, but said last week she is moving on after 15 years of so with the city because she is looking for a job with the opportunity to learn new things.

"I'm really hungry for new challenges," said Sheehy, the daughter of former Lowell city manager and state senator Paul Sheehy.

Sheehy denied anything is set in stone. "I'm mulling over a couple opportunities in the public sector," she said.

Sheehy will be assistant to the provost for faculty affairs and compliance, a new job. According to a job description provided by the university, Sheehy will provide "advice and counsel" to various provosts, vice provosts and deans on collective bargaining and other personnel matters.

"As we have grown enrollment by 40 percent, and thus faculty and staff, and research expenditures by 60 percent over the past five years, the need for legal expertise on campus has become essential," McCafferty said in an email.

Provost Ahmed Abdelal beamed about the Sheehy landing: "We are fortunate to have hired such an experienced lawyer with expertise in labor issues. Maria's background as assistant city solicitor and knowledge of collective bargaining and labor negotiations will be invaluable in dealing with union contracts and federal-compliance regulations. She will work closely with the vice provosts and the deans, as well as the Human Resources Office."

Neither Sheehy's departure nor her move to UMass Lowell is a big surprise. There have been rumblings for months that she has wanted to move from City Hall to UML, especially because she and City Solicitor Christine O'Connor are not on the same page.

In addition to her father, Maria Sheehy's mother, Molly Sheehy, is the former longtime dean at Middlesex Community College's Lowell campus. Molly Sheehy was recently in the news as she is is considering a run for the Lowell School Committee, possibly because her other daughter, Anne Sheehy, was unsuccessful in securing the School Department's director of information, communication, and technology services job -- despite help from School Committee member David Conway. Anne has worked in the School Department since 1994.

LET'S ASSUME for a minute that Mary Karabatsos bids adieu to the Dracut Housing Authority as its executive director and sails off to Medford, where she'll make a lot more money and oversee a much larger agency. Karabatsos, of Lowell, is one of four finalists for the Meffa job.

Just imagine the hiring process to find her successor, as the hiring process that brought Karabatsos to Dracut from the Lowell Housing Authority was fraught with discord among members of the commission.

It was ugly. Here's a recap:

In July 2007, DHA Board of Commissioners member James Gookin went to Lowell Superior Court, alleging that fellow Commissioner Kenneth Martin did not have the approval of at least three commissioners when he established a search committee for candidates to replace former executive director Joe Tully Jr., who suffered a stroke in 2006.

Gookin withdrew his court motion on July 27, and refiled it less than two hours later with signatures from fellow commissioners Thomas Salem and Robert Audet.

Then, in August, after the search committee named four finalists for the job, Gookin, Salem and Audet met separately -- in what was likely a violation of the board's own bylaws -- and ousted Martin as chairman. The trio also convened a closed-door session before the meeting.

At a regular meeting a week later, no mention was made of the previous week's actions. Gookin then added Karabatsos to the list of four candidates recommended by the search committee.

Karabatsos was hired on a 3-2 vote, with Gookin, Salem and Audet voting in favor.

Let's hope the hiring process is smoother this time around ... if there is one.

IT HAD nothing to do with the Michael Ferreira murder trial, but prosecutor Thomas O'Reilly, during his cross-examination of defense-paid forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Andrew, noted the doctor has researched so-called "choking game."

The game involves putting pressure on the neck with a towel or belt to cut off someone's oxygen supply, then releasing the pressure to give a "high" sensation, according to Andrew, who has studied asphyxia games.

No one was playing a game in 1969 when 15-year-old John McCabe of Tewksbury was kidnapped, tied up with rope around his neck, ankles and wrists, and left in a vacant field where he suffocated from the rope around his neck.

During the Ferreira trial, some people noted that while Andrew was the defense's so-called "hired gun," his full-time job is as New Hampshire's chief medical examiner.

Ferreira walked out of Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn a free man on Friday, because a jury found him not guilty.

ONE OF the most visible candidates in Wilmington dropped out last week, exiting with as much social media fanfare as his entrance.

School committee member Robert Hayes launched his reelection bid the night before campaign papers became available, setting up a campaign Twitter account and website and making announcements on Facebook. Hayes also set out on listening tours, launched weekly surveys and posted endorsements -- running enthusiastically for 23 days before he said he was struck by a change of heart and decided he couldn't commit to another three years because of the personal and professional sacrifices an elected official must make.

"I will be 30 by the time my second term would have ended," Hayes wrote in a post on his Facebook page. "That's scary for me to think about!"

THE RACE for two Board of Selectmen seats in Chelmsford has attracted four candidates, including a few well-known names.

Incumbent Matt Hanson took out nomination papers on the first day they were available to run for a second term. Businessman Roland Van Liew, who's been in the news in recent years for his recall effort against selectmen in 2011, lawsuits against the town and a few town residents and his outspoken "Better Not Bigger Chelmsford" e-newsletter, also threw his hat in the ring. He also ran last year but lost.

Two members of other town boards -- former Selectman (1993-96) Robert Joyce of the Planning Board and Patrick Maloney of the Permanent Building Committee -- also have taken out nomination papers.

Louis Marino, a political newcomer and owner of a judgment and asset recovery company he runs out of his home, took out a nomination form. On Thursday he decided to run for the remaining two years of a Town Meeting representative term in Precinct 5.

Selectmen Chairman Jon Kurland intends to make a formal announcement at the end of Monday's meeting.

Residents have until Feb. 8 to take out nomination forms, and until Feb. 12 to submit signatures from at least 50 registered voters. The election is April 2.

BILLERICA RESIDENT Chris Curley got a chuckle from a Sun story last week regarding the hurdles a local group must jump to turn part of Vietnam Veterans Park into a composting site.

Curley said town officials "have all of the sudden" included Article 97 of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution into the discussion about a compost proposal. The law, enacted in the early 1970s, requires cities and towns in the commonwealth to first gain two-thirds majority support from both branches of the state Legislature to change the intended use of park-designated land.

Curley may have clued the town in on this little-known law by fighting a proposal to build a cell-phone tower at Akeson Field, the park that sits across the street from his house on Shanpauly Drive. Curley's attorney, Julie McNeil of Dracut, came across the law while trying to come up with a way to defeat Town Manager John Curran and the Board of Selectmen's intention to allow the wireless company to build the tower.

At last Monday's meeting, selectmen relied on Town Counsel Pat Costello's opinion regarding how Article 97 applies to the composting proposal when they decided to hold off taking a formal vote.

Curley pointed out the obvious: Little more than a month ago, Costello filed a motion for summary judgment in the Akeson Field case, a draft in which he used 19 pages to argue that Article 97 does not apply. The compost proposal will only succeed if two-thirds of Town Meeting members support it, as well as two-thirds of the Legislature.

Contributing to The Column this week: Enterprise Editor Christopher Scott, Business Editor Daniel O'Brien, Lyle Moran in Lowell, Katie Lannan in Wilmington, Evan Lips in Billerica, Lisa Redmond in the courts, and Grant Welker in Chelmsford.

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